Aileen H. Clyde 20th Century Women's Legacy Archive: Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences

Collection subjects include:

Anthropology; Archaeology; Architecture; Fine Arts; Journalism; Language and Languages; Literature; Music; and Performing Arts

Marilyn Arnold 

Emeritus professor of English at Brigham Young University. She also served as assistant to former BYU president Dallin H. Oaks, director of the Center for the Study of Christian Values in Literature, and dean of Graduate Studies.

Authors Club

Organized in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1893 to "form a club for the study of the works of the best authors." The club expanded to establish traveling libraries, help in war relief activities, and offer a free kindergarten, as well as collaborate with Utah women political groups. Membership in the club is generally limited to those from prominent Salt Lake City families.

Phyllis Barber

Phyllis Nelson (b. 1943) published novels, short stories, articles, essays, and a book for young readers, Barber has served on the faculty of Vermont College. As a faculty member, she has lead numerous writing workshops and continuing education classes. She has received numerous awards for both teaching and writing.

Tandy Beal

Professional dancer from Utah, well known for several of her performances as well as founder of the Tandy Beal and Company, a dance company in Washington State.

Dorothy Bearnson

Undergraduate and graduate work at the University of Virginia 1941-42 and at the University of Utah where she earned her B.A. in 1943, and her M.A. in 1945. She has held a number of teaching positions at the University of Utah including: instructor of art 1962-72, associate professor of art 1972-77, and professor of art 1977-99. She is a s most respected ceramists and educators.

Marie Nelson Bennett

Musician and composer, obtaining degrees in music and composing from the University of Utah and Yale University.

Cristina Biaggi

Biaggi studied art and art history, sculpture, archeology, literature, and more at Vassar College, Harvard University, the University of Mexico City, and the University of Utah, finally earning her PhD in the aesthetics of art and prehistory at New York University. She has had a long career in activism and the arts, publishing papers, giving speeches, and displaying her art around the world. Much of her life’s work is centered around the Goddess; she has written numerous books and created countless works of art on the subject. 

Beverly Bithell

Dancer, choreographer, and dance teacher, holding jobs in Utah and New York between 1950 and 1980.

Mary Lythgoe Bradford 

Mormon poet, author, and literary critic.

Fawn McKay Brodie

Author and professor at UCLA. Wrote five biographies on different men including Joseph Smith, Thaddeus Steven, Sir Richard Burton, Thomas Jefferson, and Richard Nixon.

Fawn Brodie

Alice "Pat" Rice Capson Brown

Lifestyle writer for the Salt Lake Tribune and has been recognized for her writing in journalism and poetry.

Olive Woolley Burt

Burt wrote freelance articles in the Deseret News, and eventually took a full-time position as children’s feature editor for the Salt Lake Tribune. She is well-known for the over 50 children's books she published throughout her life.

Ramona Wilcox Cannon

Columnist for the Relief Society Magazine, the author of a Deseret News advice column, "Confidentially Yours," under the name, Mary Marker, and author of 300 free-lance articles.

Dolores Chase

Dolores Chase obtained masters degrees in both English and Arts Administration in 1979. She opened the Dolores Chase Fine Art gallery in 1985 in downtown Salt Lake City. It closed in 2002. She is also known for being a Utah writer and for her many commentary essays written and produced on KUER FM90 for the program, Afternoon Edition.

Cleofan Society

Women's group was formed in 1892 with the intention of studying art, literature and history.

Vesta Pierce Crawford

Crawford studied at Brigham Young University, Stanford, and the University of Wyoming, and went on to teach at several universities. She worked as an editor for the Relief Society Magazine, and was a member of the League of Utah Writers, the Utah State Poetry Society, the Utah Sonneteers, and several other poetry organizations. She received many awards for her writing.

Ruth Draper Crockatt

Crockatt became the president of the League of Women Voters of Utah in 1967. In 1972 Crockatt was appointed Field Director for the Utah Association of Mental Health. She later worked as the Director for the Utah Arts 14 Council from 1974-1985 then became the Representative for the Western Region for the National Endowment for the Arts from 1985-1991.

Alene Dalton

Dalton became the "Story Princess" on KSL-TV in Salt Lake City.

Frances Darger

In 1942, as the men of the Utah Symphony Orchestra joined the armed forces, Frances auditioned for and won a seat in the orchestra. Two years later, she and her sisters moved to Hollywood to found a singing group, but they moved back to Utah after a year and she returned to playing in the orchestra. She graduated from the University of Utah with a degree in English.

Frances played with the symphony for 69 years, during its transition from a community part-time orchestra to its prestigious status today, with tours and record deals. When she retired in 2012, she held the record for the longest tenure of any symphony musician in the world.

Daughters of the American Colonists 

In 1937, Edith Louise Wire founded and was first Regent of the Utah Society of this national organization. Members had to demonstrate descent from an original colonist, and were to contribute research and documentation about colonial history and family lineage to be forwarded to the national organization.

Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), Princess Timpanogos Chapter 

Daughters of the American Revolution, Uintah Chapter

Lee Deffebach

Deffebach is a painter known for her abstract expressionism and color field paintings.  This collection (1993, 2001-2005) consists of correspondence written over a period of years between Lee Deffebach and Utah artist and Highland High School art instructor, Patrick Eddington, and continuing until shortly before her death.

Louise Degn

Worked for several years at KSL as the only woman broadcast news reporter in Utah. During her career as a reporter, she produced the program “Mormon Women and Depression” despite intense pressure against it from the LDS church. She won several awards praising her perspective on the lives of Utah women. She produced a program on women’s suffrage in the western United States, “Let the Women Vote!” at the University of Utah.

Klancy Clark de Nevers

De Nevers research focuses on World War II, Japanese internment, and Aberdeen, Washington (her hometown). The publications resulting from this research include; The Colonel and the Pacifist, and The Cohasset Beach Chronicles that are a compilation of newspaper articles written during World War II by Kathy Hogan, that were edited by de Nevers and Lucy Hart.

Maurine Dewsnup

Professor of music at the University of Utah from 1942-1974, an accompanist for the department of dance, and a composer.

Annette R. Dinwoodey

An accomplished contralto, serenaded the departing troops in World War II, sang for KSL radio, with the Utah Symphony, and was also the artistic director of the Oratorio Society for many years.

Margaret R. Draper

Actress for television and radio from the late 1930s through the 1960s and her work as a disk jockey on WNEW-FM in the 1960s.

Joyce Orlob Evans

Heavily involved in the arts in Utah.

Blanche Faddis 

Faddis worked as a costume assistant at the University of Utah Department of Theatre.

Fine Arts Club 

Organized in September 1923 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The purpose of the club, as deemed by its constitution created in 1924, was the study of history and the appreciation of fine arts beginning with the first civilization.

Norma Reynolds Dalby Freestone

Professor of music and dance at the University of Utah and Sarah Lawrence College. She worked with several dance companies in the United States and England.

Judith D. Hallet

She received her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and later attended UCLA as a graduate student in Motion Pictures. She married Stanley Hallet and moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, where she earned her M.A. in French at the University of Utah. After college, she began her career as an independent filmmaker in Afghanistan and Tunisia. She was later hired as a Producer/Reporter for KUTV's news publication EXTRA. Thenn she joined National Geographic's EXPLORER as a Senior Producer in Washington, D.C. In 1991, she started her own production company, Judith Dwan Hallet Productions, where she produced and directed documentaries such as Battle for the Great Plains, Vietnam: The Next Generation, and John Kluge: The Will to Make a Difference.

June Rose Harwood

Taught at East High School, wrote poetry, sketched. Daughter of prominent Paris-trained Utah artist James Taylor Harwood and artist Harriet Richards Harwood.

Ruth Harwood 

Artist and poet, attended the University of Utah and Berkeley. Romantic/naturalist artist and poet. She was an accomplished and published poet, that she turned into lectures about her art-spiritual pilgrimage, a series of design compositions on the universal spiritual pilgrimage of man. Daughter of prominent Paris-trained Utah artist James Taylor Harwood and artist Harriet Richards Harwood.

Ruth Harwood

Elizabeth R. Hayes

A dancer, choreographer for more than 40 dances, and director of more than 35 dance concerts, lectures, demonstrations, and other dance productions during her career. She was also a dance instructor and teacher.

Dawn House

Worked as a reporter for the Daily Herald and the Salt Lake Tribune. She was nominated twice for a Pulitzer Prize, for her stories on Mark Hofmann and polygamy investigative stories.

Pearl Jacobsen

Jacobsen was a local historian and chaired the Sevier County Bicentennial Committee.

Julie Jensen

Ph.D. in Theatre, is a playwright and became the resident playwright for the Salt Lake Acting Company towards the end of her career.

Florence Jepperson Madsen

Florence was raised in a prominent family of artists and musicians in Provo. Florence held a career as a contralto soloist on the east coast prior to teaching at Brigham Young University (BYU); Franklin sang with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and studied voice under Florence. Both held advanced degrees in Music from the New England Conservatory of Music as well as from BYU, including the honorary title of Emeritus which they each were awarded after over 40 years of teaching at the institution.

Ann H. Matthews

Graduated from the University of Utah and taught dance and art at elementary through college levels. She was a prolific artist and shared her talents by painting portraits of family, friends, landscapes and still-life paintings, some of which were made into cards and are sold commercially.

Madeline R. McQuown

Writer who spent most of her life living in Ogden, Utah. She studied at Weber College and the University of Utah. She wrote poetry, which she published in an anthology. She also researched history and began writing a biography of Brigham Young.

Nancy Melich

Reporter and theater critic for the Salt Lake Tribune for thirty years. She was also a founding member of the Sundance Playwrights Laboratory and Utah Arts Festival. She was the vice-chair on the executive committee of the American Theatre Critics Association.

Marsha Ballif Midgley

Midgley was the lead in the theatre department's production of Saint Joan in 1953 and had a university theatrical career.

Karen Marguerite Moloney

Worked as Editor in Chief for the 2004 Spring issue of Dialogue. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of California in 1989. She has done much editorial work and has had many of her own works published. She is a professor of English at Weber State University.

Mary Muir

She earned a BA and MA in History at the McCune School of Music and the University of Utah, where she taught Art History until her retirement. An active member of the community, she served as the President of the Utah Symphony Guild, and was the first woman member of the Symphony's Board of Directors, as well as an influential founder of the Bountiful Art Center. She dedicated much of her life to researching Utah artist LeConte Stewart, and became one of the foremost authorities on him and his work.

Jackie Nokes

Television host, producer, assistant to the President, and Community Liaison at KSl-5 Broadcasting in Salt Lake City from 1957-1987. She was featured in several projects, and used her influence to publicize community projects, particularly supporting the handicapped and disabled.

Jakie Nokes

Helen O'Connell

Popular singer from the 1930s to the 1990s. She sang with various famous bands and individuals, including Jimmy Richards’ nine-piece orchestra, Larry Funk and his Band of a Thousand Melodies, Jimmy Dorsy, and Bob Eberly. She also toured with Kay Star, and Rosemary Cloony.

Agnes Just Reid

Teacher and author of many short stories, poems and wrote a column in the Blackfoot [Idaho] newspaper, The Register.

Barbara Richards

Barbara Richards was a self-taught photographer whose photographs have been exhibited and published. Her first teaching assignments were for the School of Journalism at the University of Utah. Later, she was hired to teach photography in the Graduate School of Architecture and remained there for 25 years until retirement, as Professor Emeritus. More than 4,000 students completed one of her classes, Photographic Seeing. In 1988, she taught the University's first-ever televised course on Channel Nine.

Raye Carleson Ringholz

Ringholz is a noted woman writer from Utah. She published several books, which include Barrier of Salt, Guidebook to Canyonlands Country, The Wilderness Handbook, Uranium Frenzy, Little Town Blues, Paradise Paved, and On belay!

Shirley Ririe

She attended the University of Utah, then furthered her studies in dance in New York. She married Rhees Ririe in 1951 and soon after accepted a position to teach at Brigham Young University. Shirley later accepted a position at the University of Utah and met Joan Woodbury. They started a small company, called Choreodancers, which later became the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company.

Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company

Founded by Shirley Ririe and Joan Woodbury in 1964. Both professors at the University of Utah, Ririe and Woodbury joined forces to create a professional dance company, conducting several residencies every year. They have toured the United States and are internationally known as well. The company's activities include formal and informal performances, lecture-demonstrations, workshops, and classes in dance for actors, stage production, and theater lighting. These activities are for all age groups with special attention to educating children about the dance world.

Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company

Linda Sarver

Sarver studied costume design and was a resident costume designer for the Pioneer Theatre Company, she also worked in scenography and dramaturgy.

Clarice Short

In1946 Short began teaching English at the University of Utah as an assistant professor. She remained there until 1974. Short has published two books of poetry, The Owl on the Aerial and The Old One and the Wind.

Linda Sillitoe

Professional author, editor, and writing instructor, and a three time Pulitzer Prize nominee. She wrote for the Deseret News, served as an editor on Bradford’s biography of Lowell L. Bennion, and completed extensive research on the ACLU in Utah.

Donna Toland Smart

Smart worked for the University of Utah as a technical writer and as an author for the Relief Society. She has served on the Emeritus Board.

Nonie N. Sorensen

Sorensen directs the Nonie Sorensen Musical Productions, a "musical reader's theater enhanced with choreography and minimum costume and props based on historical figures," in Ivins, Utah. She has been commissioned by the Utah Symphony, several businesses, and family groups to create musical productions and portray historical figures through music.

Emma Lou Thayne

  •  Emma Lou Thayne papers - In process and currently not available.

Wanda Clayton Thomas

Thomas was a teacher of speech and theater for over thirty years. Although the greater part of those years were spent at the University of Utah, her influences and contributions are international. She began her teaching career in Sacramento, California, taught in Utah, and later in Guam. Aside from teaching, Thomas performed in many theatrical productions and was dubbed by Lila Eccles Brimhall, a well-known Utah actress, as "the best actress in Utah."

Wanda Clayton Thomas

Madge Tomsic collection on Ruth Harwood

Collection is composed of material relating to Ruth Harwood (1896-1959), a Utah poet and artist who became best known for her works that described and symbolized the striving of the human soul.

Ruth Harwood

Utah Federation of Women's Clubs

The objective of the Utah Federation, as stated in the first constitution, was "To bring into communication with one another the various women's clubs in Utah, that they may compare methods of work and become mutually helpful--and in general to promote such measures as shall best advance the educational, industrial, and social interests of the state."

Utah Federation of Women's Clubs

Utah State Society Daughters of the Revolution 

The purpose of the organization was to honor their ancestors who fought in the American Revolutionary War by promoting democratic and patriotic standards and ideals. Prided itself on doing noteworthy deeds outside their membership confines for public schools, the city, state, and nation.

Utah Women's History Association

Founded in 1977. Its focus was on studying Utah women, Utah history, and women’s history. The association sponsored symposiums and programs on these different topics.

Julia Farnsworth Lund Wassmer

Wassmer (1911-1996)  had a long involvement in the Utah art community. She became State Art Director and devoted herself full time to art in Utah, developing beautification projects for public facilities, which provided work for artists struggling through the Depression. In 1937 Wassmer moved to New York City where she became a staff member of the Permanent Exhibition of Decorative Arts and Crafts at the Rockefeller Center. 

Ina Claire Wallace

Prominent actress during the 1900s. She began acting at age 13, and appeared on Broadway, and in Hollywood movies.

Barbara Williams

A reporter for the Salt Lake Tribune’s children’s section. She earned an M.A. in English from the University of Utah, published over fifty books.

Marian Robertson Wilson

Wilson (b. 1926) is a musician, as well as a linguist and teacher. She has been recognized internationally as music editor of Coptic Encyclopedia and has lectured and taught at universities throughout the world.  She is the daughter of Leroy J. Robertson, a world-renowned musician and composer.

Joan Woodbury

Studied at the University of Wisconsin, receiving her B.S. and M.S. degrees in dance. She taught dance there until becoming a professor at the University of Utah. She and Shirley Ririe co-founded the company Choreodancers, later known as the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company.

  • Last Updated: Feb 27, 2023 10:30 AM
  • URL: https://campusguides.lib.utah.edu/c.php?g=1196928
  • Print Page
Marriott Library Eccles Library Quinney Law Library